Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) has reiterated the government’s goal to have up to 47,000 overseas compatriot students stay on in Taiwan after graduation by 2030 in a bid to boost the nation’s workforce.
During a meeting with a visiting delegation from the World Federation of Taiwan Alumni Associations on Tuesday last week, Chen said that alumni from different school and university tiers in Taiwan, living or staying in Taiwan, play an important role in promoting exchanges between Taiwan and their home countries.
As such, the Cabinet last year approved a 2023-2026 plan formulated by the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) to enhance the cultivation and retention of overseas compatriot students, with the goal of retaining up to 47,000 individuals in Taiwan for employment by 2030, with the aim of maintaining Taiwan’s economic growth momentum, Chen said.
Photo: CNA
Under the policy, to maximize the development and retention of overseas compatriot students, the government has adopted new measures to make their enrollment more flexible, including encouraging schools to establish special study programs for international students.
Other measures include expanding industry-academia collaborative education programs for overseas compatriot students and transforming the Overseas Youth Vocational Training Program into two-year associate degree programs.
The government has also relaxed requirements to stay and work after graduation, including allowing overseas compatriot students who have obtained an associate degree or above in Taiwan to apply through their employers to become intermediate-skilled workers in Taiwan, which grants them exemption from certain requirements such as work experience.
Students on short-term study programs are also allowed to remain and work in Taiwan under certain conditions.
Chen said that since the government introduced its New Southbound Policy in 2016 to strengthen relations with its neighbors to the south, from South and Southeast Asia to Australia and New Zealand, many Taiwanese enterprises have pinned their hopes on overseas compatriot students remaining in Taiwan after graduation to help expand their international markets.
Since the implementation of the overseas compatriot education policy over 70 years ago, more than 170,000 overseas compatriot alumni have graduated from different school and university tiers in Taiwan, the council said.
The number of overseas compatriot students who remain in Taiwan after finishing their studies or programs in universities and colleges has increased from 2,000 in 2020, to 4,000 in 2021, 6,000 in 2022, and is expected to reach 8,000 this year, the council added.
The council on its Web site defines an “overseas compatriot student” as a person of Taiwanese or Chinese descent who “has come to Taiwan to study, who was born and lived overseas until the present time, or who has been living overseas for six or more consecutive years in the immediate past and obtained permanent or long-term residency status overseas.”
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at